Time Enough for vacation
by Fabius Maximus
Summary: A James and Cindy story. A mission goes...a bit off. SEE! SEE! I ACTUALLY FINISHED A MULTIPART STORY AGAIN. THERE IS HOPE FOR THE OTHERS!
1. Chapter 1

Time enough for Vacation

A James and Cindy story.

Disney owns Kim Possible. I do not. Likely that's fortunate.

* * *

It had started out so well. James and Cindy had gotten a message from Wade about a hit on their website.

Some fellow calling himself "Dr. Temporal," had stolen a highly classified chip from JPL.

"JPL." Cindy said, pulling on her combat suit (fortunately sans safety panels, the 15 year old thought). "That means…."

"Cindy, Mom'll have a cow." James said, looking away. Although, to be honest they'd both gotten pretty used to this. Though he wasn't' certain if Cindy's father had yet clued into the fact that her suit, like her mom's old suit, left no room for underwear.

"I don't care if she has a_ litter_, if they're government, they can afford it." The dark haired girl said. "And it's for charity…" She glared at James. "Which was your idea, I might add. I really could use some new bioreactors."

"Even after what Ms. Rockwaller threatened if we ever had another earth day incident?"

"She recovered." Cindy said, "And I've got another idea…"

"What?" James asked. Cindy was the biological and computer side of the team, he tended more towards the hard sciences like Grandpa James and his Uncles.

"History day is coming up…"

"And?"

"And how about if instead of talking about a figure from the past, we _clone_ one?"

"Who?" James sighed, remembering that unlike him, Cindy _also _came from a long line of mad scientists. "Washington?"

"Pah!" Cindy said, "Small potatoes." She grinned and looked at her friend, granted her now really buff-_No. Just Friend._ "I'm thinking of…" Her voice dropped, "The Bones of St. Peter…Security there is easy, I could be in and out…"

James stopped mid button with his combat suit. It wasn't' powered, mainly because he could get along without that, and at times the servos could interfere with his martial arts skills.

"St. Peter." He said, "You want to clone St. Peter, the founder of the Catholic Church."

"Yeah!"

"Cindy?"

"Yes?"

"This scares me, but I'm going to be the voice of reason here. I think Ms. Rockwaller would give us detention until the sun went out if we started a Crusade on school grounds."

"You're no fun."

"But I do have a survival instinct." James said. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Cindy paused, "But don't let them off, James! They let stuff get stolen, they're government, they donate to…" She got the word out, "Charity."

* * *

With that, the door opened in the Air Force transport that was letting Cindy and James hitch a ride (due to their aid with an unfortunate incident involving a little lost killbot), and the two dove out over the LA skies. Para gliders unfolded from their backs as they dropped through the night sky.

"There it is." James said, "Reading me?"

"Yeah." Cindy said, "Big house?"

"That's where the sensors are saying the chips are…man, he's not even trying, there is a LOT of power down there."

The two dropped into the front yard, and stealthily made their way past the rentaguards, through the house, and into a large lair in the back.

"Over done." Cindy said, "Who uses oak in a lair?"

"Eh, it's Hollywood..." James said, "and there he is!"

The mad scientist in question was ranting away. "Soon they will all know me and fear! For, _I_ Dr. Temporal-"

"That's a really dumb name." Cindy said, as he whipped around.

"What-WHO-"

"When, where and why." James continued, "Congratulations, you pass journalism."

"Silence!" He shouted, "Where is Kim Possible!?"

"Mom?" James shrugged, "She's writing a funding request for the US government. She works for the International Red Cross." He paused, "Or at least I think she was…. Usually she only growls like that when she's having to write governmentese..."

"Oh, my sympathies. You do not believe how hard it can be to come up with the right language-wait, we're supposed to be fighting! Well, you'll have to do." The wild haired madman said as he threw a switch.

"This device shall change time, forcing all to bow to me, or I'll never return their _Daylight Savings Time!_" He cackled, as the device started to power up. Cindy and James stopped, looked at each other and looked back at him.

"You do realize that Daylight Savings time has nothing to do with real time, right?" Cindy said, and then turned around as the first rush of henchmen charged in.

"Stop them!" Dr. Temporal shouted, and then started to duck as large numbers of henchmen started flying around. If it hadn't been so painful it would have been impressive. Cindy preferred to dive right in, using her fire and direct martial arts skills to send them flying. James' depended more on his quarter staff and using mixed martial arts movements to throw and redirect his enemies rather than simply thumping on them. The end result was the same.

"You'll never stop me, my Time-oops." Dr. Temporal said as the machine started to arc and shake.

"Leave the lair?" Cindy asked. Sparking was never a good sign.

"Yeah…" James said as the ambulatory goons ran, "problem with that Cindy… what has he done that your dad never did."

"Crap. Put his lair in the middle of a heavily populated neighborhood?"

"Yap." The two teens headed right for the central control.

"I cannot shut it down!" The doctor screamed.

"Maybe because you didn't have an off switch?" Cindy snarled, "How much power is this thing eating James."

"Oh this is bad." James said, "He needed a lot of energy to run this…and that's what the chips were for."

"What?"

"It's an antimatter capacitor…there's about four grams of antimatter in a containment field."

"Well, it might cause a small explosion." The doctor said.

"Small?_ SMALL!"_ Cindy grabbed him. "it'll take out most of this neighborhood, you _idiot!"_

"Okay, good news, I know how to stop it." James said, "Bad news…we have to activate the device to do it…. " He said, "We'll focus the field here, and it should be good."

"Okay, " Cindy growled and grabbed the doctor, "Buh-bye! And don't leave, after this is over I'm going to deal with you." She finished throwing him across the room. "What will it do?"

"Move us a few hours in time, I think." James said, "but we need to go now!" He hit the switch and a flash filled the room. When it was over, the room was empty… the time displacement machine powerless…not to mention half melted.

"I…I DID IT! My would be nemesis' the children of Shego and Kim Possible have fallen to me, I-" He blinked, realizing what he had just said, "I think I better move with no forwarding address before their parents find out…."

Cindy and James fell. James fell on a pleasantly squishable package, which squawked and tossed him off of her. Cindy landed on some unpleasantly squishable stuff, namely a pile of garbage bags… to say nothing of the fact that James had landed on _her._

"What? This isn't-" Cindy got up, "James, where are-AWK!" She shrieked as a dog sized rat looked at her, before running away ahead of a bolt of pink energy.

"I…" James looked around at the boarded up windows on either side of the alley, the dark sky over head, the smell of smog and exhaust, that actually was so bad that it made him cough, to say nothing of the stench of garbage. "I don't know…maybe we've been sent so some alternate reality, or a post-disaster future of some kind…maybe aliens have invaded or-"

Cindy looked down and, an expression of disgust on her face, disentangled a paper from the dead fish it had been used to wrap. Looking at the headline, she sighed.

"Or it could be That we're in New York City… in 1976." Cindy said, looking at the paper. "July, 10th, according to this…date."

"Oh." James said.

TBC.


	2. Welcome, tourists

Part II: Welcome, tourists.

Please note that this may be taking a bit of liberty with the real NYC-- but family was their and evidently the city was...not at it's best during the 1970's. Also, remember that for all they fight evil (sort of), James and Cindy come from an upper middle class suburban neighborhood in the 2020's.... so ah, past shock will be severe.

* * *

James looked out from the Alley. It looked like it was about 10:00 AM.

"We have a problem." He said.

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Cindy said sarcastically.

"Beyond being stuck in the past." James gestured at his suit—the vest, shirt and pants. "This can sort of pass…but you're, ah…" He gestured at Cindy's suit, which, much like Shego's old suit, left little to the imagination.

"Well, I sort of left my other clothes, _fifty years in the future!_"

"No worries." James said, "I saw a clothing store—I'll walk in and get you some clothes then you change out here and we're home free!" Cindy glared but didn't see any better idea. James headed to the store, while Cindy waited, unaware that she was being observed.

Tim "Tiny" Tomkin was what was known as a "chickenhawk." His business was finding teenaged runaways and steering them into a profitable career for him.

He was not, it must be said, a Nice Person.

So when he saw that in-damned-credible girl standing in a swimsuit, he knew she'd be doing movies for him by the end of the week and with those curves up top (and bottom wasn't bad either) she'd be pulling in a ton of money for him.

And better yet, no luggage and just that Halloween costume, she _had _to be desperate.

"Hey, Cutie…" A voice said, and Cindy looked down at a….seedy guy.

There was no other description for him. _How much hair gel does he use...and what's with all the gold chains? _ He sidled up to her. "I can see you're lost in the big city… and I can help you find a place to stay…and a Job." He paused, and suddenly Cindy felt a hand cup her _ass_! "And with curves like that down there, I think your career in movies will take off…especially-" He reached up and touched another place, this time higher up on her chest, "With _these_ money makers…Call me Tiny, your new best friend."

James had just finished buying the goods, thanking God that the clerk hadn't bothered to check the date on his money. (to say nothing of the colors, or size, or art). He quickly headed back to the alley.

"Cindy, I found-"

"SOMEONE STOP THIS CRAZY BITCH!"

A seedy guy was up against the wall, his clothes smoldering, trying to glare at a very angry Cindy.

"Is she yours? You'd better call her off, before I decide to get tough!" He paused, "And these are _my_ streets, so you better not try and muscle in."

James blinked. "What is he talking about?" He asked Cindy.

"He _grabbed my ass!"_ Cindy snarled, "Not to mention touch-" She bit off the comment, going red, before returning to her normal 'all batteries ready to flambé, captain' color.

"What?" James said.

"Hey, a piece like that…you got good taste…" Tomkin's said, "If she's as good in the sack as she looks, I can hook you up with a producer…. Always a market for new actresses…" He stopped. Suddenly James' eyes flashed blue for a moment.

"Hold this, Cindy." He said. "I need to instruct someone in how they treat, and talk about, a lady."

"'Lady' yeah, kid, that's a rich one-Hey, what-LEGGO! PUT ME DOWN, OUCH, HELP!"

Moments later, Cindy and James exited the alley.

"There's a bathroom where you can change." James said, ignoring the crowd that was collecting behind them.

"What was _that?_" Cindy said, "I can defend myself."

"True, but what if he actually breeds and produces someone important? You might lose your temper and permanently deal with him." James said. "Besides, my way was better."

"Hmph." Cindy grunted, but then took James' arm. Actually it had been cute the way he'd immediately gotten pissed. Not for the threat, Cindy could have handled _that_…but she'd seen how James had started to glare when he noticed how that guy's eyes were roaming up and down Cindy's body, like she was a hunk of meat, not a girl.

He was still pissed, despite the lightness in his voice, she realized, feeling the tension in his arm. James almost never, ever _got_ pissed. That was her department.

"Hey." Cindy said, "It's okay… I think you got him good."

"Well…" James said, forcing himself to relax, "I like to think I'm creative…"

"Where are we going next?" Cindy asked.

"Somewhere where we can avoid people like that." James said. He snapped his fingers, "I know, Time's Square! We went there once for New Years Eve—it's clean and patrolled and we can get something to eat."

"Cool." Cindy said, "I wonder if the Disney Store is there yet."

"I don't know, but it has to be better than this place." He said.

"Yeah, it does." Cindy said and then blinked and blushed, letting go of James. "But we'd better get me in these clothes first."

"Yeah. Here's the bathroom. I'll stand guard."

Back behind them, two beat cops looked up.

"so was it him?" The younger partner asked, looking up at the man, half naked and suspended from the top of the light pole by his underwear.

"Don't think so…he normally uses webs." He grinned, "But either way, I like it. Get the Camera, since we gotta take evidence before the fire truck gets here."

TBC.


	3. That Isn't Nixon!

History lesson…of a sort.

* * *

Cindy was unhappy at her clothes. The platform shoes had her walking awkwardly—Cindy had never worn high heels in her life, and these were nearly as bad. The skirt and blouse wasn't much better.

"Sorry." James said, "but at least you can wear your combat suit on under them," Cindy reluctantly nodded. Removing her gloves and undoing the seems that attached the sleeves to her torso suit. Putting them in the large purse that James had also bought, she now looked like a teenager of the time…sort of. The green highlights in her hair were something nobody else had, but there was nothing to be done about that. Fortunately, her skin tone wasn't a dramatic as her mothers.

James had just bought a jacket, to put over his own clothes, which made him blend in.

"Lucky." Cindy said. "I feel like an idiot wearing this."

"No, you look great!" James assured her.

James and Cindy made good progress towards Time's Square. When they got there…

"I don't remember it being…"

"This dirty?" Cindy supplied.

"Yeah." James said, looking at a store advertising "LIVE NUDE DANCERS!"

Cindy sniffed and wrinkled her nose, "And smelly as well."

" Oh yeah." James said. In fact his eyes and nose had been burning from the exhausts of all the cars. He pointed at a vendor, "But there is still New York Pizza."

Cindy Shook her head, "Trapped in the past and that's…"

"Well we won't get back home by starving." James said reasonably. Coming back with two slices, he handed one to her along with a coke. "Here, try it."

"Not as good as your dads…" Cindy said.

"Nothing is as good as my dads." James pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true." Cindy paused, "James…how much money do we have."

At that James, frowned, "Not as much as I'd like. I paid the guy at the store in all of our obviously modern money…so most of what we have will pass now."

Cindy blinked, "How did you get it past him?"

"He was…ah… Working with chemical enhancers."

"oh."

"I doubt he would have noticed if I'd set him on fire, much less handed him some…well we can't call it counterfit, now can we?" James said, scratching his head.

"I hope we don't have to use that excuse in front of a Judge."

"Yeah." James said, "But long story short, we have about a hundred. That isn't going to last very long."

"We can't get a job." Cindy muttered, "we don't have any ID…" She stopped, noticing James looking the other way.

"What is it?"

"That police officer has been looking at us." James muttered. "You know…"

"What?"

"Nobody had year round schools in this time…or at least I don't think they did…so if this is a school day and we're…"

"Oh…_crap._" Cindy said. _If they get us for truancy, they're going to want to contact our parents, and that could be a little hard…and when they find out we don't exist in any records…_ "What do we do?"

James looked around, and saw an answer. "There."

Cindy blinked, "What…that's sort of garish…"

"I don't care." James said, "Look at the title…it's obviously about the last days of President Nixon's administration."

"So?"

"So what kids would be going to a documentary."

"Why here?" Cindy asked, looking around at the seedy surroundings.

"Maybe an art theater that's still holding on? Who knows, but I'd prefer to be in there than out here."

They quickly moved to the ticket booth where a really fat, pasty individual took their money, grinning at James and Leering at Cindy.

"Want her to get some pointers, eh, kid?" He said. James blinked.

"What was that about?" Cindy asked.

"I don't know." James said. keeping one eye on the cops who were now being distracted by a fist fight. They quickly entered the theater.

Cindy's voice came out. "James…why is the floor sticky?" The doors closed, the lights went down and the film started. James sighed. They would have to stay here until the film was over, since it would look very bad if they came bombing out while the police were still around. He could survive some boring documentary about Watergate informants.

The cops were long gone when Cindy and James emerged, eyes wide.

"That…wasn't anything like what I read in history class." Cindy said, her face still brick red.

"And Nixon didn't make a single appearance in the film." James muttered, his own face not much better than hers.

"And…" Cindy said, "I am NOT touching the soles of my shoes, I'm just going to walk off whatever is…sticking to the ground."

"That's probably a good idea." James said. "Let's….find somewhere else."

"Where?"

"I have no idea…"

* * *

TBC.


	4. Conversations and Complications

Conversations and Complications

* * *

They walked along, Cindy getting more used to the platform shoes…and happier as the sticking sensation started to go away. Her mind censored the sounds in the theater, especially from the group in the very back row. She shuddered. _These_ were the good old days the grandparents talked about?

"So…" Cindy said, "You were more into this end of things than I was… are we going to…vanish?

"You mean if Grandpa makes a pass at you and you murder him?" James said, and grinned, "Watch the temper Cindy."

"I do not _need to watch my-"_ Cindy glared and relaxed. "Okay, but seriously…" She looked at James.

"I don't think so…" James said, "There are a few theories." He continued as they passed an alley where a bum was urinating against the wall. "First, Time is frozen. Anything we do here, we were meant to do, because the only place you have a choice is in your present."

"But if a time traveler from the future comes back…" Cindy said,

"Yeah, the implication of that is that free will is pretty much an illusion." James kept walking, his eyes sweeping back and forth. Time's Square and the streets around it set off his 'hostile territory' detector.

"That sucks."

"Yep, and it seems really stupid for the universe to go to all the trouble of making us think we have free will…" James paused, "but there were some pretty nice stories about it-"

"Like Captain Constellation?" Cindy asked. James glowered at her.

"I'm talking about _real_ science fiction." He muttered.

Cindy grinned. Then she stopped grinning. James loved Westerns (mostly movies) and Science Fiction (mostly written). Getting him on a rant about how real science fiction had ended back when E.E. "Doc" Smith or Edmond Hamilton had stopped writing. _Oh God, most of them are still alive, and isn't Isaac Asimov living in this city…Cindy __**you idiot, **__ if James remembers that you'll never get back to the future…_

"So what's the other theories?" She asked quickly.

"Well, there's the "anything we do changes thing' theory, where the Universe is really easy." He grinned, "Think about the stories Veronica used to tell about mom and dad before Ms. Rockwaller convinced her to stop."

Cindy twitched at that. How could James even joke about those horrible-

_He was letting it roll off his back._ Ms. Rockwaller's voice echoed in her head. Cindy took a deep breath. She was right, James was treating Veronica's rumor mongering like it wasn't even worth getting upset about—like it was something to joke about and that had made _Veronica_, not James look stupid.

Ms. Rockwaller had been right…and she wasn't even born. She _wouldn't_ be born for years yet. Cindy bit her lip at the pang of loneliness.

"If that's the case, we really have to be careful, but…"

"Yeah?"

"Don't believe it either. If that happened, every time someone went back in time and changed things they'd have to empty Heaven and Hell and swap."

Cindy nodded. "Yeah, that'd be…pretty harsh." James had a point.

"And then there's the alternate reality idea where we just create another branch…and last, and my personal favorite, the 'time lock' theory."

"Bwuah?"

"Anything we _know_ happened in the future is locked. Our parents WILL have us—we observed it."

"Why do you like that one?"

"Because it explains why time travelers in the movies never bother to actually learn about where they're going—the more they know for certain the less freedom they have."

Cindy thought about it. "That makes my head hurt."

"Mine as well…" James paused, "But I really don't want to find out we wrote ourselves out, so we need to be really careful what we do.

"Yeah."

* * *

Betty Ran. The men had taken Daddy and they were about to take her, but she had slipped out of her pink jacket and ran away. She didn't know where home was, just that it was in Brooklyn, but she wasn't anywhere near Brooklyn, and she couldn't find a police officer and-

WHAM.

Cindy lashed out and kept the little kid from falling on her ass. She was a brown haired girl of about six who looked up, tears rolling down her eyes and started to talk.

Pleasehelpmetheytook daddyandicantfinda policemanandineed hel

"Whoah!" Cindy said, "Slow up… first, what's your name."

A sniffle. "Betty."

"Okay, Betty…tell me what's wrong." Cindy had gotten down on one knee so she wasn't looming over the girl. Surprisingly enough, given the rep of her parents, and her rep for a temper, Cindy had little problem landing babysitting gigs. On the other hand, Shego worked with the County Child Development Office, so maybe it wasn't that surprising.

_Well there's also the fact that someone trying to hurt a kid under Cindy's care would be smarter to stick his hand in a blast furnace._ James thought.

"Some men grabbed daddy, an they started to hit him! He fell down and they kept hitting him!" She started sniffling again, "I ran away but I can't find any policeman!"

"Wouldn't help." James said, "By the time she did…" His voice trailed off. Cindy looked at James, James looked at Cindy.

"So…" Cindy said, "We need to watch what we do."

"Yah."

"So getting into a fight would be stupid."

"Yep." James said, as he started moving the way Betty had come. "You know, dad did a lot of stupid things, seemed to work out well for him."

"Mom said that when she decided to marry Dad, part of her thought it was the dumbest thing she was ever going to do." Cindy said, following him, Betty still hanging on to her hand. "She said she was never so happy she didn't _listen_ to that part of her."

"So am I. I like my best friend." James replied.

"Good." Then Cindy looked at Betty, "Okay Betty, show us where these men were and we'll get your dad back."

"Okay." Betty said, feeling better already. There was something about the two teens…

"Because…" Cindy breathed out, "A 'bunch' of men sounds like a bunch of bullies, and I really, _really_ hate Bullies…"

* * *

TBC.


	5. Playing Tag in the Dark

Playing Tag in the Dark.

* * *

Michael realized something.

Playing games with the tax code wasn't worth his life. Unfortunately, it looked like that was about to be the case. His company had been under-reporting it's income for some time—and part of the deal was to let some funds be "stolen" and then later the laundered money would be brought back into the company coffers, minus a service charge.

Unfortunately, their associates had evidently decided to increase that Service charge, and had shown up at his home just as he and his daughter were about to go meet his wife and son.

"Now, the way I see it." Their leader, a man named "Fang" said, "You can work for me, or you can hurt more…" He kicked the forty year old banker in the already broken rib, conjuring a scream, "and so can your brat." He smiled, "After all, I bet your company has a lot more than this…" He pointed to the single brief case of money that Michael had had at home…. The brief case that was supposed to be "stolen."

"What do you say-" The lights went off. The twenty or so gang members started shouting and yelling at each other, until Fang roared, "Shut up! Slicer, Blood, go check the fuse box!" Several other gang members had flashlights, knives and guns out…

And they were as plain as day to James and Cindy. After all, they had everything in their backpacks, including night vision goggles…. Night vision goggles that were state of the art for the 2020's. Looking more like cartoon super hero eye masks than goggles, they turned the pitch black room into near day, not simply collecting visible light, but detecting and using the infrared spectrum.

"Don't forget and fry your mask with an emp, Cindy." James said, "we're a little far away from a replacement…. Also watch your fire, I don't think we want to risk burning down the place."

"Humph." Cindy said. "Knives and guns…how you want to do this?"

"Take down the separated ones first."

"What about Betty's dad?"

"You heard them, they want him alive." James' voice, gained a humorous tone to it, "I bet they decide we're here to poach him for ourselves… ready?"

"Oh yeah." Cindy said, grinning.

Slicer was named for his namesake—a razor sharp blade. He preferred it to the gun that was in his waistband. Right now, he was holding a flashlight in his other hand, looking for the damned fusebox.

"It isn't there." A voice said from the darkness behind him. Slicer turned, stabbing out with the blade-

"Slicer?" Blood came around the corner and stopped. Slicer's flashlight was on the floor…and so was Slicer. Blood started to pull his gun when something dropped from the darkness over his head. He had a chance for one scream.

In the central area, the rest of the gang heard the scream. Fang looked around. "Slicer? Blood! Dammit, stop screwing around and get the power back!" He glared at the others, and pointed, "You, you, and you-" He said, indicating 6 of the gang members. "Go find out what happened to Slicer and Blood." That group nodded, and headed off, sticking close to the two with flashlights. The others stayed in the middle of the room, their lights flashing all over the place.

"Idiots." Cindy whispered over the comlink, "All they're doing is wrecking what little night vision they have…. Not to mention making enough noise to wake the dead."

"True." James said from where he had just finished gagging and tying Slicer and Blood with some none-too-clean rope they'd found. "This group isn't splitting up."

"Yeah… a couple of bats, one guy with a pistol and a sawed off." Cindy said. "You want the pistol and I'll take the shotgun?"

"Cool…give a light show in front of them, once I toss the bottle."

"Gotcha."

The group was walking, looking around nervously. They hadn't seen any sign of Blood or Slicer and they were nervous. Most of them figured the thing to do was to take their prize and leave the building…but who knew what was outside?

"It isn't cops, man." One said, "They'd be telling us to come out."

"Maybe the Diablos?"

"I don't know…maybe…the Mafia?" Another said, "What if they're the ones behind that guy?" With that the gang started to cluster closer together…when something landed in front them. They spun around, flashlight blinded eyes staring into the darkness where the sound had come from…. Which meant they were utterly unprepared for Cindy's bright plasma blast.

The sawed off boomed in the building, but Cindy had never been anywhere near where her plasma had exploded, more a light show than anything else. Now she and James dove at the group, and the man with the shotgun, fumbling to reload it didn't get a chance to as Cindy's leg exploded out and folded him around it. Meanwhile, James had taken care of the pistol holder, and seconds later, the rest of the gang was down, except for one man, screaming for help and running back the way he came.

The rest of the gang responded, charging out, with more anger than wisdom. Shots and shouts rang out, soon joined by screams and thumps as bodies hit the ground. In the center, Fang had grabbed Michael and held the semiconscious man up, a gun to his head. All his men were gone…and nobody responded to his yells.

"You ain't getting him!" He shouted. "Blood? Hammer? Two Gun? Where are you guys!"

"Indisposed." A voice said. He waved his gun at the sound.

"I'll blow you away!" He shouted, when suddenly his gun got very hot and he dropped it, as…_pink_ fire lapped at it?"

"What…Diablo…." He whispered.

"Oh, you speak Spanish?" A female voice said and he turned to see a little _puta_ walking towards him out of the darkness. His courage returned, partially. She couldn't be over 16 and she was wearing something that looked like a swimsuit. He pulled his switchblade out.

"I don't need a gun for you, girl!" He said, his eyes roaming over her body. "But I got something you might like!"

The girl giggled. "Oh, I don't think so, but I'm happy you speak Spanish."

"Why?"

"I don't hear it much where we're going to be going." She smiled, "Of course I don't hear much of any language….just a lot of begging and pleading." With that, her eyes started to glow, and suddenly, flickering reddish pink wings seemed to rise from her back, looking like shadowy bat wings, casting a dim glow over the interior of the warehouse. "Ready to come with me? I know people who are _dying_ to meet you…."

Fang's blade fell from his nerveless fingers. He dropped Michael and took one step back and then with an inarticulate scream, ran off into the darkness. Nobody could have caught him…but he neglected to consider that he had no light, and was running in a blind panic, and the concrete wall was only 10 feet behind him. He hit it with a satisfying 'wham!' and slid down, unconscious.

"That was mean." James said.

"I know. It was also fun." Cindy said grinning. Then more seriously, the two walked to check Michael. Both teens had first aid training, just as their parents were trained. It came from working and living in high entropy zones.

"I think he has a cracked rib. Everything else is superficial."

"Yeah." Cindy said. "We can move him."

"Good." James said, grabbing the man's brief case.

A few moments later, they emerged into the darkening afternoon. Betty had stayed behind and called the police from the pay phone as James had told her to do.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" She screamed, running over to him. Michael was coming to, shaking his head.

_What happene-_ He remembered the Gang charging out and then… He blinked. "You two took out twenty men?"

"Um, ah…" James said, looking nervous, "They really weren't very good."

"Not at all." Cindy said.

"I have to call your parents—to thank them if-" Michael noticed the expressions. He blinked. _That would explain why they were in a warehouse…_ "You're runaways, aren't you."

"Um, sort of." James said, handing him the brief case.

"Don't you want to go home?"

"It isn't possible." Cindy said and both looked up at the sound of police sirens.

"Sir…we'd better be going."

_They must be in some kind of trouble. But they stopped and helped me…and helped Betty. Betty could have __**died**__ because of what I did…_

"Wait!" He said and pulled out a bundle from the brief case. "Here, take this—you probably need it."

James started to say something and then winced. Cindy had found time to put the platform shoes back on…and was standing on his foot.

"Um, thank you, sir." James said. "Bye."

"See ya." Cindy said, giving Betty a quick hair tousling. With that both teens were gone, as the first police car pulled up.

_That's it, God. You made things abundantly clear just now. If it had been up to my stupid decisions, I and my daughter would be dead…and I don't think I'm getting another chance like this._

"Betty?"

"Yes daddy?"

"I'm afraid I've done something not very good. That's why those bad people came and hurt me."

"Bad?"

"Yes… But I think it's past time I owned up to it, since I've always told you to tell the truth. Things may be…hard."

"Okay Daddy." Betty said, looking off to where the two kids had vanished.

_I never even got their name._ As the police ventured into the warehouse, more cars showed up. Michael explained the events, simply mentioning that a few passerbys had aided him. Looking at the heavily armed and in many cases bruised and tied up gang members being led into the paddy wagon, the officers were deeply skeptical. Finally, Michael took a deep breath. _Time to do it._

"Officer?"

"Yes?"

"My name is, ah, Michael Director, and I'm afraid I need to speak to the district attorney…you see I wasn't exactly here by mistake…."

TBC.


	6. The hunt is on!

The Hunt is on!

* * *

"So….funny money?" The cop looked at the angry store owner.

"Yes!" he shouted. "Look at this!"

"So your clerk was too fried to tell when a kid gave him monopoly money." The officer said, holding the bill, "I mean, it doesn't even feel like the right type of paper."

"So you're not goin-"

"Hold on." The police officer said, dropping the 100 dollar bill James had used (sweating bullets over) and picking up the old five dollar bill he hadn't even given a thought to. He looked at it, rubbed it, and turned to his partner.

"Holy hell." The other cop said, holding the bill. "Except for the date…this is perfect…_perfect._" He turned to the shop owner. "We're taking this as evidence. Where's your clerk."

"In back."

"We're taking him as well…they're gonna want to talk to him downtown….and talk to a sketch artist."

"Why so worried?" His partner said.

"I'm not worried, but it's the 11th …tomorrow the Democratic National Convention gets started and I'd really not want the Secret Service to think we're falling down on the job."

"Yeah."

* * *

James and Cindy were walking—not running, mind you, but walking casually, away from the incident.

"That… was fun." Cindy said.

"I hope nobody there was supposed to go on and do something important." James said.

"Like what? Become president?" Cindy giggled at the image, "So what did he give us? A couple of hundred dollars?"

"Let me check—that would make things…easier…" James trailed off as he looked at the bundle and counted it.

"What?"

"A bit more than a couple of hundred."

"How much more."

"Looks like about 150, hundred dollar bills."

"Fifteen _thousand_ dollars?" Cindy said, stopping dead in her tracks.

"Yeah." James said. "Wait a minute." He quickly counted down half and handed it to Cindy. "Don't put it all in one place—I don't want to lose it all to a isngle lucky pick pocket. "

"Yeah." Cindy said. She paused, "That ends our money problems."

"For the short term." James said quietly. "At least a year or so."

"A _year or so?_" Cindy said angrily, and then calmed down. "What makes you think we're going to be here for that long-"

"I have no idea how to get back, Cindy, " James muttered, "I was thinking about it, but every time travel theory or story I've heard from mom and dad…takes a lot of technology and resources."

"I…" Cindy paused, "I was thinking about it myself, but we need to find out more about what we're working with."

"Yep."

"We need a science library—a good one."

"Good thing there are colleges here." James said, "We can pass for students pretty easily." He shrugged, "just merge into the crowd, and if anyone asks us for our ID, we forgot it."

"That gets us into the library." Cindy commented, "But money or no, a lot of places are going to want ID."

"Yeah."

Cindy sat down on a bus bench, and frowned. "Mom could make fake ID in her sleep—but she had connections, we don't. If two kids showed up to a crook and asked for a fake ID no matter how much money they had he'd…"

"Probably just take their money and call the cops?"

"Likely." Cindy said, "and…" Now she looked embarrassed, "Mom never actually let me try anything like this..remember… curfew by 6:00 until I was 12?"

"True." James paused, "If we do get back you can always point out that had she let you become a juvenile delinquent, we'd be far better prepared…"

"I hadn't thought of that." Cindy said, cheering up.

"And we're going to have to find a place to stay." James said.

"No, first we need to do something else." Cindy said.

"What?"

"Won't it look suspicious if someone shows up without any luggage?"

"Oh no. We can put that off." James said, having mother driven flashbacks.

"Nope, we have to go_ shopping_." Cindy said happily.

"Oy Vey."

"Oh, stop it." His friend said, "We can also hit a book store and you can pick up some of those old musty science fiction books before they got old and musty…"

James brightened up. "Right." He said, "And we can figure where the best place to establish our lair would be."

"Lair?"

"Well, technically, unless you were planning on telling the landlord…we're breaking the law. Thus, lair."

Cindy squealed, and thrust a finger in the air. "YES!" James winced. That wasn't normal.

"Um..what?"

"Dad's going to be a complete push over this year for Christmas." She said, "All I have to do is tell him how James Possible-Stoppable fell into the habits of Villainy!"

"Great." James said, "Well, every journey starts with a first step…so lets go…" He made a face, "Shopping."

TBC.


	7. Shopping for clothesand apartments

Shopping for clothes...and apartments

* * *

Shopping…

The very word could cause some to shudder.

James endured, proving his strength.

Well that and he'd demanded and received agreement from Cindy that they hit the bookstore first, so he managed to score the complete _Lensmen_ and _Skylark_, series from EE "Doc" Smith, to say nothing of a series of reprints of Captain Future including the hard to find _The Magician of Mars, _and, _Outlaws of the Moon._

That at least gave him some material to endure the horror which would ensue. Less frivolously, they'd also bought an almanac for 1975 and a few periodicals to bring them up to date with 1976.

And, James had to admit, Cindy didn't go…as crazy as some might have. She bought a pair of shoes to replace the shoes he'd bought, slacks and a few blouses, all things that would let her wear her combat suit on underneath them. Both Cindy and James had agreed that under no circumstances would they let any uptime materials or tech off their own persons, unless they were in their…lair, no matter what. She also had a few boxes that she refused to divulge the contents of.

"Fine." Cindy said, "Now your turn." James marched into several stores and quickly picked up white shirts, a set of levi's jeans, and a single three piece suit. Cindy groaned at that.

"Away from parents and you…"

"Look respectable." James said, and grinned, "Or at least like some college student, hopefully." He paused, "by the way, if we do get caught…we're 17."

"Why?"

"I don't know if we can really pass for 18…but 17 means they might just let us go and if they keep us in the orphanage system, we only have one year to go."

"They might not let us communicate." Cindy said.

"I know." James said, "So if that happens, every Monday, Thursday and Saturday we'll try to meet at the New York Public Library at 10:00 AM."

"Sounds good." Cindy said, "We can justify it as a study trip." She nodded, "But they'd take all of our money."

"Who cares?" James asked. "Dad was never into Professional Football, but he loved college games….and I can remember every major College game for the next 10 years." He shrugged, "Won't take much to make money from that."

"Okay." Cindy said, "But why let them hold on to us?" She make a quick motion, a tiny lick of flame appearing in her hand.

"Because two kids who won't talk about their parents would make fewer waves than two kids who busted out, or fought cops, and got an APB out on them. " James said seriously, "Especially if things happen to make us look weird…." He frowned "Cindy, think about our parents, and grand parents, and _great_ grand parents."

"Yeah." His friend muttered, "wasn't your great grand mother still working right now?"

"Part time—remember she had granddad and Slim to take care of." James said. " But part time for the CIA and I don't think even mom or grandma knew everything that she did…just that she got handled real weirdie cases…" He paused, "Do you really want to risk having us listed as one of those real weird cases?"

"Nah." Cindy looked around as they walked down the now dark street. "It would get worse—_all_ of our families get involved in weirdness."

"Yep, and if we interact with them in any real way, there's a danger of us going…pfft…or changing the future, or splitting off an alternate timeline or having evil time monkeys suck our brains out…"

"I think that last had you channeling your dad."

"Well, they could exist." James said, "But really, after we get our footing… I think we need to try and think of a place where our families never went."

"Good luck on that…" Cindy muttered, "Unless you want to try a peasant village in Bolivia."

"Nah, Mom went there." James replied.

James and Cindy however, soon faced a new challenge. It was dark, and they were, honestly, exhausted.

"We could try to find somewhere to eat-" He said and was interrupted by a bone cracking yawn.

"I want to sleep." Cindy said, "In a bed."

"Yeah." James said and moved to pull out his own PDA, then shook his head and returned it. There was no data network in _this_ time. "Let's check one of those phone books."

"Okay." Cindy said, and giggled, "Do you know that I think this is the first time I've seen one like that—I mean paper and non-interactive?"

"Yep."

Unfortunately, most of the hotels were occupied, because of some big convention or another, but James kept calling. Finally he got on the phone, spoke for several minutes and then held his hand over the phone.

"What is it?"

"It's not a hotel." James said, "It's an apartment in Greenwich Village." He paused, "The last Hotel operator told me about it."

"Okay…" Cindy said, "What do they say?"

"They want a deposit."

"My feet hurt, how much?"

"200 dollars, and it's 350 a month."

Cindy paused and thought. "That gives us a while before we go through our money…"

"We could try and find some place better located."

"Any place better located might be more willing to ask questions." Cindy pointed out. "If we pay them, hopefully they'll just take the money."

James nodded and got back on the phone. "We'll take it."

"Now…" Cindy said, "We just have to get there."

James grinned, "That's what Taxi's are for."

Amazingly, that part went easy.

* * *

Greenwich Village was the hard part. When they got to the four story Brownstone, they came under the gimlet eye of the owner, Rita Moscoso. The forty something woman glared at the two teens. "You look younger than you sounded. Where are your parents?"

"They…aren't alive." James said honestly. After all, it wasn't a lie. "We're here to enter college."

"Hmph." She said, and looked at them closely. "What you do is your own business, but no drugs, and no people tromping in and out at all hours of the day and night." She paused, "Deposit, 200 dollars, and first month, 350. In advance." James handed it to her without complaint, and she looked at him and then nodded. "Here are the keys. Remember, no noise or chaos or out you go."

"I understand, Ma'am." James said.

"Four stories." Cindy said.

"Well, at least we won't have to worry about anyone on our ceiling." James commented.

Inside the apartment, they noted two things. First of all, it was small, with a living room/TV room, small kitchenette, bathroom, and bedroom.

Bedroom _singular._

"Um, ah." James said.

"Wow…." Cindy said, "look at this." She turned on the TV and watched as the black and white image flickered and appeared, revealing the opening credits of some show called "Hawaii Five-O". "It's not busted, it's really just a black and white TV? I've never even _seen_ one of these."

"Un-yah." James paused, "Cindy… I guess I'll sleep on the floor."

"Oh, that's smart." Cindy said, "It's a big bed. Why are you getting de-sequenced on me? It's not like we never had sleep overs before."

"We were _eight!"_

"And now we're 15." Cindy pointed out. "And it's stupid for you to sleep on the floor." She looked at the TV and frowned. "And really, it's a choice between this…" She flipped the channel, "the News… or…_what is that?_" She asked. James waited until the commercial break. "Something called Hee-Haw."

"Something called brain drain." Cindy muttered and flipped the TV off. "I…" she paused, "I was going to say we should hit the net to start work, but…"

"No internet." James said.

"Yah, and I'm tired." Cindy said, "Flip you for first shower?"

"You go ahead." James said, thinking, "I'll just check out my haul." He grinned.

"Good, read about the future in the past." Cindy said, as James pulled out the _Captain Future_ book and promptly escaped into seeing if Captain Future, the Brain, Grag and Otho would defeat the villainous Magician of Mars, otherwise known as Ul Quorn...

James didn't like to speed read books like this, so he wasn't even on page 30 when Cindy finished her shower and came out.

"Your turn." Cindy said, as she came out, drying her long dark hair with its green highlights.

"Good, I-gak." He said.

"What?" Cindy asked. "I'm _not_ about to sleep in my combat suit." She said, "That's why I bought _this_."

"This" was a long T-shirt with a logo of stars and "1776-1976" emblazoned on the chest. Reaching down just below her thighs, the shirt was just tight enough that…distracting things happened when she moved.

Of course, James was aware that both Shego and her daughter tended to wear light clothing to bed. After all, both of them ran "hot" due to their plasma based powers, which could make heavy pajamas uncomfortable…and was the reason, a younger James had quickly realized, why Shego had made certain to always have a robe handy for herself if she needed to come out and check on her kids.

Primarily because it seemed that in general "light" equaled "nothing at all" for the elder Lipsky-Go.

"James?"

"Um, nothing!" James said, _Because it's silly since that's actually more concealing than her combat suit and you've seen her in beach clothes, not to mention disintegrating her clothes, and so there's absolutely no reason why the fact that she's going to be in bed with you wearing that T-shirt and nothing else should bother you, nope, not at all. I'm not even going to consider the fact that her combat suit has support so some things don't move very much and unbalance her, and that right now it's obvious that she isn't wearing anything like that because when she turned to look at you th- _"I mean, I better go take my shower, because we need to have an early start tomorrow and it'd be terrible if we were late…" With that, James retreated into the shower still talking.

The next floor down, Mr. Stansilav smiled that the new tenants. The first one had used some hot water, but the next one obviously understood the limited store of the water heater and was using nothing but cold water. They were obviously considerate.

James, when he came out, somehow managed to make it into the bed in a single leap, on the far side from where Cindy was grumping about the savage and benighted nature of a land where even such basic requirements for civilization such as remote controls were missing. He quickly slipped under the covers and looked over at the clock.

"ah, um, 7:00AM?"

"Sounds good for a wake up." Cindy said. "Then we get to go hit the library."

"Yeah." He said, "Well night!" With that, James turned off the light, leaving Cindy looking somewhat surprised and quickly rolled over.

_This is just the same as the sleep over. I can stay on my side of the bed, and there will be no awkward questions from her mother, or my mother, or all the various lunatics on both family sides. _James focused on that.

Not twenty minutes later, James felt Cindy's breathing relax into sleep. Good, he was safe and-

He had forgotten that Cindy had a Pandaroo at home. She tended to grab onto it when she was worried.

Being flung back in time to New York City, qualified as "worrying" and as usual, Cindy wanted to grab something. As had happened at times in the past, whether they were coming home from a mission or the Earth Day situation, Cindy could pick substitutes.

James felt her roll up against him and then a pair of strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him close. He felt the breath whoosh out of him. Much like her mother, Cindy's comet powered frame was stronger than it looked—she easily bench pressed 500 pounds. She obviously hadn't gotten any weaker, James thought as he felt his ribs creak.

More distractingly, it was making him aware of how very pleasantly squishable her body was for all of her-_Bad James. Partner and Friend, remember!_

Then she started whispering something in her sleep.

"Is she dreaming of-" He heard what she was saying. _Oh Good, it's just her usual happy fantasy dream._

"Why no, Veronica." Cindy murmured in her sleep, "It's not a death trap…if it was, I would have given the sharks laser cannons and _then_ thrown you in. I just want to see how fast you can swim…." A paused, "and don't forget the robot octopus…"

James sighed, and resigned himself to a long night.

* * *

TBC.


	8. To the library!

To the library!

* * *

The alarm went off, noting to all and sundry that a new day had dawned. James' eyes opened, and looking directly into Cindy's eyes that were about 3 inches from his. At some point during the night, the two had ended up facing each other in the center of the bed, and James had somehow found one of his hands on (thankfully still covered by her shirt and the blanket) Cindy's hip.

Somehow, proving that teleportation was possible, the two ended up on opposite sides of the bed, blushing furiously.

"S-See!" Cindy squeaked, "just like a sleepover."

"Uh, Right!" James said and looked down.

_Dad you are right, I should give thanks to the God of our Fathers, of Isaac and Abraham._ He thought sincerely. The one body part that would have made the situation more awkweird than he'd wanted to even think about was behaving itself.

"So, Um, shower?" James asked.

"_What?"_

James blinked, than blanched, "I mean you, you shower first!"

"Yeah, right, of course." Cindy said, "I knew that." She vanished into the shower. James sighed in relief.

Later, after he had finished his shower, they were ready to hit the books. The New York University was located in Greenwich and James had heard more than a little about it from his grandmother.

"Wow." Cindy said, looking at the paper in the dispenser, "A lot of stuff about…who is this guy?"

"Jimmy Carter." James said, "He's going to win." A fellow wearing a republican lapel pin glared at him. James shrugged apologetically, "Well, he _is_."

"Wait…" Cindy said, "Wasn't he the guy who invaded Panama?"

"No…" James said and paused, "I thought he gives it back."

"Maybe he changed his mind." Cindy pointed out.

"Possibly. I never was much for ancient history." James said, shrugging.

The two didn't look much different from the students moving back and forth for summer session. Cindy's hair might have called for some comment, but she'd done it up in a single thick braid and had it flipped over one shoulder where the green highlights weren't as noticeable, meanwhile covering her head with a brightly colored scarf. A blue pantsuit, completed her ensemble, incidentally hiding Cindy's combat suit. James was wearing a shirt and pants combo that looked identical to any number of students walking back and forth. If they looked younger than most, they didn't stand out that badly.

Inside the library however, James and Cindy faced their first problem.

"James…" Cindy hissed, "where's the catalog?"

"I…over there." James said, pointing to a set of wooden cabinets with small shelves in them. Walking up to them, James pulled one out and blinked.

"File cards." He muttered, "How the hell can anyone keep track of all these books with _file cards?_" He blinked, there were _millions_ of them.

"There has to be a cross index here somewhere." Cindy said, and frowned. "How about this—you check on the physics and I'll do the biology."

"Biology?"

"Sure—if we can't get up immediately, what about cold sleep?"

"Mmmm…got a good point, Cin," James said, "Okay, we'll meet back here in an hour." With that, the two kids separated heading to the various parts of the file catalog.

An hour later, several librarians were looking in surprise at the two. They'd initially wondered if a pair of high school students had wandered in, but when the head librarian looked over, the boy was reading several texts on physics—very, very high level texts and if he seemed confused about the card catalog, he wasn't confused about the _material_, taking page after page of notes.

The only thing odd, the head librarian thought was that some of those notes actually seemed to be referring to the _future_.

The other kid, the girl was plowing through biology texts at the same speed, and taking numbers of notes. She however was less sanguine than her friend and the librarian could swear she heard her mutter 'that's wrong' several times looking at chapters on cell division and genetics.

James and Cindy missed lunch, and only came up for air when the 15 minute closing announcement came.

"Wow." Cindy said, "this is…" She looked at her notes, "Going to be hard."

"Yeah, I think we need to buy a…typewriter." James muttered. His stomach growled.

"I'm hungry too." Cindy said, "where should we go?"

"I…" He paused, "How about that little restaurant on campus?"

"Okay." Cindy said. It wasn't Bueno Nacho, but they'd eaten out enough after school.

At the restaurant, the two found a booth far from others. James looked around and then frowned at Cindy.

"I think we gotta a problem, Cin." He said, "this place is even more backwards than I thought—they just started selling Cray's this year…"

"Ug." Cindy said, "That's horrible."

"Yeah…and the technology needed…" James paused and took a bite of his sandwich, "Cin, we're talking half a dozen breakthroughs, to say nothing of incremental improvements."

"You can't do it?" She asked, surprised, James was normally the "I can do anything" guy.

"No." He said, "I don't know enough—nobody does. Not even granddad knew everything about how to build all his stuff—he didn't have to make everything from scratch after all."

"Ditto for Dad." Cindy said, "He had mom steal it."

"Yeah…" James said, "The problem is that I _could_ get a start, if I brought in other people."

"But?"

"But that requires revealing 2020's State of the Art…in 1976." James looked frustrated, "Even if I could get people to listen to me, and I could once we get enough money…"

"It changes things."

"Big time." James said. "Very big time. I don't want to go home if there's a risk we're going to find out that our parents never met."

Cindy nodded.

"So what about you?" James asked.

"Well…" Cindy sighed, "We can keep looking but sort of…the same thing. They don't even seem to realize just how big a bear it is to avoid ice crystals forming in the cell structure…some of their "cryonics" seems to just be dumping a body in liquid nitrogen." She looked down at the soup she ordered, "All that makes is a corpsesickle….emphasis on 'corpse'."

The two sat, the sound of happy diners seeming to fade out. Cindy looked around. _This is like things are, were…no will be at Bueno Nacho._ She paused, _I wonder what mom is-will be doing?_

"So…" James said, "We'll have to keep looking." He shrugged, "Not much else to do."

"Yeah." Cindy said. Her appetite, however seemed to have gone away.

* * *

"So you think these kids are the same ones who helped the guy?"

The officer held out the sketch artist's conception of the boy.

"Well, they didn't get a good look, but it could have been him…. And they did talk about a girl."

"A girl who was on fire and supposedly had batwings… that's pretty thin."

"Well, it's all we have." The smaller man said.

His partner laughed. "Okay Levitt, we'll keep an eye out and hey, maybe if you get to break the great teenaged counterfitting ring of 1976, Captain Miller will finally give you that promotion to detective."

"I can only hope."

TBC.


	9. We’re not supposed to be Samaritans!

We're not supposed to be Samaritans!

* * *

On the way back to the apartment, James and Cindy heard something they didn't want to hear.

A female scream.

"No, No, _no!" _James said. "WE don't need to get involved, I'm certain someone else will…" He looked around and noticed that a number of people were simply minding their own business.

Another scream sounded, this one louder, and a girl, half clothed, a little older than James and Cindy, ran past the two teens.

"What was that-"

"College prank?" James asked hopefully. Then the pursuer hove into view and he blinked. The guy was big, and frothing at the mouth.

"Probably not."

"I'm going to cut you!" the man screamed, "I know you've been hiding them! The people in the sky, the chewing voices in my brain!"

"Oh crap." A college student near the two teens said and backed off quickly. "He's high on Angel dust!" That seemed to be a code word for clearing the area around him, a circle of onlookers forming, as the man continued to pursue the girl who for some reason still had her platform shoes on.

"WE ARE NOT FROM SAMARIA!" James shouted to the sky. Then, "Let me handle this." He told Cindy.

"So I won't get hurt?"

"So you won't wreck your dress."

"Oh, that's sweet." She said, as she took James' note books.

The girl stumbled and fell and her pursuer closed in when James tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hi, I'm with the union of sky people and we'd really like you to calm-wow!" The punch that came his way was unskilled but very, very fast and James ducked back, cross blocking a second punch—one so hard that it actually pushed him back and broke one of the crazed man's fingers.

"Kill you! KILL YOU AND EAT YOU!"

_Not in general a good sign._ James thought, dodging back. Most people with broken fingers backed off. Cindy had went to the girl and was quickly shoving her into an idling Taxi.

"Hey, I'm on my lunch break!" The cabbie said, pointing to his meter.

"Fine, here's five dollars to drive her out of here, unless you want to talk to her fan club over there." Cindy snarled.

The driver got.

James was getting annoyed. The man was completely unskilled, but he was coming like a locomotive, and his wild punches were like a pair of pile drivers. There were a number of ways to shut him down, but James didn't want to hurt him…or do things that might make the audience think he wasn't just a teen.

_On the other hand… _James thought as a fist nearly took his head off. He waited until he had an opening, and launched a snap kick to the man's chest knocking him back. Then he swept his legs out from under him and backed off as he fell.

"Okay, now will you _please_ stay down?!" James said and then in an annoyed tone, "Doesn't _anyone_ have a celphone…you know, to call the police?" he looked around at the blank faces. "Right, sorry about that-"

"KILL YOU!" James looked up just as his dance partner _ripped a bus stop bench _ off of its bolts and started swinging it like a large club. Cindy was behind the man, looking concerned and James could see her start to get ready to jump in. He shook his head. The last thing they needed was both of them to be involved.

As the man charged him, James ducked under the deadly club, getting inside his reach and quickly hit pressure points on the arms and shoulders.

_Doesn't matter how freaked out you are if the nerves can't talk to the muscles_, he thought, then put the man down with another leg swipe, the bench going flying into a store front.

"Are you going to stay down?" James asked. The man was frothing too much to talk. He sighed, and undid the crazed individual's belt and quickly tied his arms behind him, rolling him on his stomach where it would require a lot more coordination than he had to actually get back up.

James hoped.

"James…" Cindy hissed, as the sound of police sirens started to get closer.

"Oh crap." James said and leaped up. "So much for a nice walk." He muttered as he and Cindy quickly turned down another street. "We need to find a place to stay for a bit."

"I know, but-" She said, before almost hitting James as he stopped.

James looked upon the movie theater, and smiled, "I can't believe it."

"Another _movie_ theater?" Cindy paused, "James Possible-Stoppable, remember the last one?"

"No…this one is better. _This _ one, is just what the doctor ordered."

"A western?"

"Nope, A classic Science Fiction movie…first run. _Logan's Run!_" He said, practically bouncing on his feet.

Cindy sighed and put her hand to her forehead. "Fine. We'll hide out there." She paused, "You really wanted to keep the dress from getting wrecked?"

"It's pretty."

"Thanks." Cindy said, blushing slightly. "Any other reason?"

"Well that and your tendency towards uncontrolled mayhem when you get annoyed."

Cindy punched him in the shoulder.

"See, I rest my case."

"Arggh…let's go see your movie." She paused, "Just once…no ten showings."

"Of course not, the theater isn't 24 hours." James grinned, and Cindy cast her eyes to heaven, but then took his arm in hers.

As they went into the theater, her voice came out, "So 'Angel Dust'? Looked like some sort of combat drug."

"If so, it wasn't very successful. The guy fought hard, but not smart." James replied. Then…"Oh hurry! We only have five minutes to get goodies and a seat!"

* * *

"So, a kid fought a guy who weighed four hundred pounds, and was hopped up to his eyeballs on PCP?" The police officer said.

"I wouldn't have believed it, unless I'd seen it!" one of the bystanders said, "You should have seen him—he was duckin and weaving and then slipped in under a damned park bench and it was like, He-yaa!" the man pantomimed kung-fu moves, "All Bruce Lee and chop-chop and then he was down, the kid tied him up and they both lit out of here like their tails were on fire!"

The rest of the crowd nodded.

"Both?"

"Yeah, his girlfriend was here—a real cutie—she helped the other girl into a taxi cab."

"Okay…where did they go?"

The crowd shut up. Trust in the uniform was not tremendously high in Greenwich Village. The police officer sighed. "Okay, did they look like this?" he said and held out the two sketches they had.

"Maybe…" Someone said, but that was all they got.

"That's interesting."

"What, Levitt… C'mon, so we get a good Samaritan. That's not unheard of, even in New York."

"A teenage one who can put down a 400 pound guy on Dust?"

"So he got lucky. Give thanks we're filing an arrest report instead of a morgue report."

"Then why did they run off?"

The other cop sighed in annoyance, "C'mon… A kid's going home with his girlfriend, or maybe they're out a little later than they should be, and they do a good deed. You think mom and dad are going to be happy if they get brought home in a squad car? You got the description—nice clothes and a dress. Those ain't runaways."

"They still sound a little like…"

"The mysterious flaming demon woman and her imp who took down 20 armed gang members? Give it a rest, Levitt—besides, Secret Service is handling that case." He shrugged "let them run around worrying about Weathermen bombmakers. I figure it was Karma…gang runs into someone nastier than they are when they're trying to shake down an old guy and his kid."

"Hmmm…." Levitt thought, _But they were walking, not taking a cab…so maybe they live close to here…_

_TBC.  
_


	10. Exhaustion

Exhaustion:

* * *

Three days later, James wanted to scream.

And the fact he was in a library at the time wasn't helping. There was nothing—_nothing_ he could do to even begin to duplicate Dr. Temporal's device, even if he could have done so in the pre-future. James was smart, but this was _Wade_ level engineering with a dash of Mr. Lipsky-Go at his smartest. Add in the fact he'd have to build the tools to build the tools to build the gadget that would make the device…

"And materials developments, _and_ programming breakthroughs, _and_ power systems…" James muttered. OH, he could get to the future doing this—it would probably be about the time they'd been tossed back when he finally got everything together to make the damned _attempt._ He grabbed his reddish blonde hair and resisted the impulse to start pulling it out.

Of course there would be a way to do it, easily and quickly—walk into any lab with their PDAs, communicators and other gadgets and they'd have all the money and aid they wanted…as well as completely blowing the timeline.

And that was _best_ case. James hadn't mentioned it to Cindy, but if the idea that the past was fixed was correct, then it was very likely the universe would insure that no such disruption could occur, so James was very carefully not even _thinking_ of doing that.

"Probably won't nova our star…" He said, remembering the Larry Niven story, "But there are plenty of other ways to insure two kids don't break reality." _After all, two unidentified dead bodies in the cold case files would be a lot less disruptive than letting technology out. _

Which wasn't the only problem. _Logan's Run_ had been fun, and Cindy had even laughed at parts of it… but on the way back to the apartment, she'd become quieter, morose, and that had continued. Not touchy—in fact she was quieter than she usually had been at school. One thing _nobody_ ever had a problem with back home was telling if Cindy Lipsky-Go was unhappy. (Or happy for that matter). He peeked at her over his papers and there she was, head in a manual of practical genetics (far obsolete even for a high school book in their time).

Right now, half the time Cindy would only grunt. The only thing she'd get upset about was if he suggested using the kitchenette. In fact she'd almost bitten his head off for that.

Okay, granted, he'd almost bitten her head off when she'd suggested they just leave New York. Worse, she had a point. They'd made waves here, even if they were small. Her idea to take a bus or train across country to Los Angeles made sense.

And James was trying to figure out why he had gotten so, well…pissy about that.

They still slept in the same bed, but after the first night, both he and Cindy had managed to stick to their sides.

_Did I do something wrong?_ James wondered, and then started as Cindy closed her book with a slam that had a librarian look up in surprise.

"Let's go." She said.

"It's only 3:30-"

"Let's. Go." Cindy repeated in a cold voice. She turned and walked out, James following her, confused.

He almost had to trot after her, back to the apartment, and let himself in with the Key, since Cindy had locked the door after she'd unlocked it.

"Cindy? Cin?" James called, but there was nothing. He walked into the bedroom and looked around, then looked over to the open window. He peeked out and saw Cindy's leg vanishing over the lip of the roof above. James blinked and followed her. They'd left a small rope dangling after the first night, since it would provide a convenient exit if they needed to run, but he hadn't used it since then.

The roof was flat, save for the ventilation equipment, and the chimney that handled the various fireplaces. Cindy was sitting on the lip of the roof, looking out over the city, heat waves making it shimmer. James shook his head. He was almost used to the smell of exhaust that seemed to permeate the air in this time.

"Cindy?" He asked.

"Go, away." She said, and James blinked. She really sounded like mom when she was in one of her "low swings" as dad called them.

"Sorry." James said, "I really think maybe…we should talk?"

"What's there to talk about?" Cindy muttered, "We can't get back. We can't build a machine or a sleep pod and so we just have to go back the old fashioned way and that means that we'll be able to see our parents again or our friends or even your sister or the Gemlins, when we're _older than our grand parents!_" that last came out as a wail.

James bit his lip. He had really been trying not to think of that. Dad's dinners, mom working with him on martial arts…them just _listening_ to him.

There was nobody else right now to listen to him. Except for Cindy.

Everything they knew was nearly 50 years in the future. They would be…

65.

_Sixty-five._ James hadn't _really_ thought about it, but now….they would be older than their grand parents. If they couldn't find any other way, they'd nearly be at the end of their lives the next time they would actually be able to speak with their parents. He looked at his hand and realized that it was trembling.

_Deep breaths._ He thought, and started up in the relaxation techniques that… Dad, Aunt Hanna… and Mom had taught him…. James ground his teeth which was really preferable to screaming or bursting into tears. Cindy had pulled her legs up, knees below her chin, putting her face down in her arms and he could see that she was trembling even through the heat. The sounds of the city came to them, and if James looked out, it almost looked the same.

Almost. There were the twin towers of the World Trade Center, standing proud, as they hadn't since before he had been born. The street lights and the cars were all different, the people wearing different clothes, speaking of different things . South Vietnam's fall was still a topic of conversation, not something that you read about in a dusty old book or data file to finish a report.

_And we have to hide._ Mom and Dad had spoken of just how badly they disliked people who walked by and did _nothing_… but James and Cindy, as a matter of survival, not just for themselves, but everyone they knew, would have to do the same thing.

_The world will march by, and we'll find some place in the middle of the Midwest, or an out of the way part of Europe, and…let it. Let all the evil go by. _James wasn't as dedicated (read: fanatical) as his mother could be, but that thought twisted in his guts. He wouldn't even be able to do what he liked, because they couldn't risk a technological leak…either live off of the gambling, while being careful to avoid problems, or find some job that wouldn't disrupt things.

Like being a postman.

Cindy was now shivering like she was freezing, but then Cindy had taken one thing from her mother, a great hatred of being _out of control._ Just like James' mom, which probably explained why they either got along famously or had people running for cover, but very rarely anything in between.

Just like they _would_, that is. Neither one existed right now.

"Cin." James said, and sat down beside her. Part of it was to see if she needed anything but right now _James_ needed something.

"What?" She said in a choked voice, and he realized another reason she had her head down. "Did you find a catalogue for time machines?"

"No…and I checked everywhere…" He paused, "Even the comic books, but they only have X-ray specs." That got a half heated laugh. James hesitated and put his arm around Cindy. Cindy didn't hesitate and leaned back into him, her head nestling into his shoulder. James diplomatically avoided commenting about the moisture on her cheeks.

"It'd be easier if this was some alien world." James said softly, "I mean, there wouldn't be anything familiar."

"Yeah." Cindy said, "Our grand parents are alive right now… and only a few years older or younger than we are…we could go see them, but…"

"We don't dare." James said and Cindy was pulling closer to him, as she put her arm around him.

"That's why I yelled about the food." Cindy continued, "as long as we're eating out, maybe it's just a short thing and we'll be back home, but if we start cooking…in the kitchen, then that's like saying…"

"That this is gonna be home?"

"Yes." That came out a whisper.

"Yeah." James said. The two held each other, not moving or speaking as the sun slowly started to descend. It was summer, in Greenwich Village, and they could hear some of the street performers.

"This is an awfully big city." James said, "and there's fun stuff here."

"What? But the library-"

"I can't think of anything else to do." James said, "Can you?"

"No."

"Then lets have some fun." James said and suddenly grinned, "Because we have all the time in the world here…" He paused, "Literally….so maybe we need to stop trying so hard and just pause."

"That sounds like your dad."

"Yep, and think of all the stories where something just…happened." More seriously, "Besides, really, is it gonna help if we drive ourselves nuts?"

"No." Cindy said and then, "are we giving up?"

"Never. We're taking a breather."

TBC.


	11. Seeing the City

Seeing the City (and a friend) in an New Light

* * *

The next morning, James and Cindy left the apartment, leaving their books and notes in it. The only thing they did take were the uptime materials, as well as half the money (the other having being securely hidden in the apartment). The Democratic National Convention was in full swing, with all the craziness attending it, but James and Cindy didn't bother with that.

After all, who cared about some fellow who barely merited a single test in their American History class. James thought about that, and remembered a conversation.

"_It'll all be forgotten," Mom said. _

"_But Mom, you're on the news-"_

"_Retrospectives, mostly." Mom told him. "Most of what I do now is testifying, or badgering people for money—your father and I hardly ever go on missions—well public missions any more."_

"_Better that way." Dad said, "You wouldn't believe how nasty some of the scandal sheets can get." The 11 year old James didn't understand that, and his father continued, "If they can't find dirt, they make it." _

_Mom glared, "Like what they did to poor Shego." James boggled, __**Poor**__ Shego? Kim continued, "Digging up everyone she'd ever been with to get the 'dirt' and she couldn't even flambé them since she was going straight-" Mom shook her head. "Anyway, James in 20 years, the only people interested in your father and I will be obsessive types and historians."_

"_Isn't that the same?" Ron asked._

"_Hush, you." Kim laughed, "And that's not bad—because if enough time goes by, you'll _always_ be forgotten—so never do anything because you want to be known, but because it's right…. Even if it will be forgotten."_

"_By man, at least." Dad said, sounding uncommonly serious. "Doesn't mean it won't be remembered by Somebody." _

"James?" Cindy asked.

"I was thinking of seeing the Convention, but who cares." he said, "Let's just go and see the street performers."

"And the rest of the city." Cindy said. "Except Times Square."

"Yeah, I think we saw enough of that."

And so they did. Starting in the morning, James and Cindy ate at one of the many small cafes in Greenwich Village, watching the street performers and the students and the passer bys. They looked like a pair of teens out for the summer, and James had a hard time taking his eyes off of Cindy's dress. It was the same one she'd worn when they'd had their close encounter with the angel dust addict, washed the day before.

And it _was_ pretty.

Or maybe that was who was wearing it. Cindy had a scarf tied over her head and her long hair done in a thick braid. James liked it, but he'd have liked to see her hair unbound more…but the green highlights did attract attention, so it was wise to keep it a bit more under control.

Rockefeller Center was crowded with businessmen, the golden statue of Prometheus gleaming in the sun. Cindy paused, and took out her communicator.

"Cin-"

"Relax James." Cindy said, "People aren't paying any attention to us, and it looks like a pocket camera." She gestured at a store selling small cameras. James had to admit that they were pretty close in size to the unit Cindy was holding and…

_Ah, who cares._ He thought. Cindy grinned and took a picture of him, and then James did the same for Cindy. She stuck the sensor in James' shirt pocket and grinning set it to continuous record.

"Why not." Cindy said, "It has 120 hours of recording space."

'Yeah but-"

"But we'll have something when we get back home—we'll show our friends." Cindy said, and if there was a flicker of doubt in her eyes at that, she banished it quickly. "Now let's go—this is a BIG city."

And it was. They'd been advised to stay away from Central Park and James decided to listen to the cabbie. After all, Cabbies _always_ knew more than anyone else. Cindy grinned and suggested they hit the Empire State building, where she leaned out and enjoyed the breeze on her face, only giving a minor grump at the wire grating that surrounded the observation deck.

Later, they headed out to Little Italy, since James' dad had raved about it.

"Okay." James said, "Dad was right."

"stp" Cindy gulped down her mouthful of ravioli, "stop talking and eat before it gets cold." James obediently complied.

_We've been doing missions since we were 13._ James thought, _and yet this is the first time we've really…just walked. No running back because it's a school night, or anything else. _He'd been to Tokyo several times…but never just seen it. Granted he'd been in Japan more than that, but most of that was to stay at _Yamanouchi, which in general didn't tend to result in leisurely strolls. _

Of course, they also hit a few shops. Why not?

But the city was large and there were only so many hours in the day. As the sun was going down, they walked down Broadway street, looking at the Marquees and crowds in the theater district. James found Cindy leaning into him, her arms intertwined with his.

"Um, tired?" He asked.

"No…" She said, in a surprisingly soft voice. "I'm just happy I'm not here all alone."

"Yeah, me too." James said and felt Cindy's head nestle into his shoulder. She didn't disengage until they got into another cab and headed back to the Village. Over them and the sound of the cars, James heard a jet above them, heading to who knew where. Then he blinked. The cab wasn't heading back to the Village, and Cindy had said something to the Cabbie.

"Cindy-what-"

"It's a surprise." Cindy said. They pulled up at a theater where a number of people were, and got out of the Cab.

"Here" Cindy said handing James a glossy photo. "I picked it up when you weren't looking, now go and get it."

"Get it?"

"The autograph, before we go see the movie." She said, "You jumped out of an airplane to see the trilogy, so you should at least get the autograph."

James looked at the man signing. The tall, somewhat rawboned man who had….

"Oh. No."

"Yes." Cindy said.

Clint. Eastwood.

_He Who Created Mighty Westerns Himself._

James staggered up and managed to not make a complete idiot of himself.

Or maybe he did. He really didn't remember what he said, when Mr. Eastwood signed the picture of the Man With No Name. Cindy, grinning like… well Shego when she'd last won a bet with Kim was scanning the whole scene with the communicator she'd plucked from James' pocket. Then, James carefully, carefully rolled the photo up and stored it in his collapsed quarterstaff.

"How did you-" He asked Cindy

"Easy, when you said go out today, I took the time to check a paper, and imagine how surprised I was…."

"Yeah." James said as they entered the theater. "How did you get tickets?"

"Well, like you said." Cindy commented, "We can always get more money by gambling…so I ah, handed the ticket guy a 100 dollar bill to get a pair of tickets."

"You-" James wanted to point out how foolish that had been, but… "Thanks." He said. "You know, my brain sort of shut down…what film is this?"

"_The Outlaw Josey Wales_." Cindy supplied. "Now hush. It's starting."

"Yes Cindy." James said obediently.

"Good." Cindy said, but seemed more interested in James than the Movie. James noticed her green eyes gleaming in the dark…and not watching the show.

When it was over James was in a bit of a daze. They left, getting some hotdogs from a street vendor, and headed back to the apartment, now in full dark. There were still people on the street—it was a warm day and some night musicians were playing. Whatever the history books would say, what ever the people thought of this time, and James had seen enough newspapers to realize there was more than a little hopelessness and fear working… A city's spirit was hard to crush. He abruptly grinned at that, feeling the last of the depression that had been trying to cling to him from yesterday vanish.

Why not? After all, even if one person could save the world, they couldn't keep it saved without the aid of everyone else on it. And there were a lot of "someone elses'" doing their part.

He felt the need to slow down, not wanting to get to the apartment. It would mean the night was over, and maybe tomorrow or the next day they'd have to get back to planning on what to do.

Whether to keep trying to find a way to get back home…or do it the long way.

At least Cindy was here. She was right about that.

"James?" Cindy asked.

"Yes?"

"You know…" Cindy paused, and looked at him. "How long have we known each other?"

"Cindy? Like…forever." James blinked.

"And we've been friends for just as long."

"Yeah." What is she?

"Okay." Cindy said, and was stepping up closer to James, her face just inches from his. Without warning, she threw her arms around him, pulled them together and Kissed James.

The only persons who had kissed James before were mom and Grandma.

It was not a "Mom" kiss.

_Oh Boy_, it was not a Mom kiss in the slightest. It was not like anything James remembered In his life. He put his hands down on Cindy's lower back, abandoning the packages and pulled her close to him, feeling the way her body conformed to his. Feeling her warmth.

After a while, Cindy broke off and looked at James, faced flushed actually panting a little bit.

"I…Cindy?"

"It's…I just…" She paused, "Are we still friends?"

"Yeah. And a bit more…" James said, still feeling dazed. "I…"

"Good." Cindy said, "Let's get back." She smiled and took him by the arm.

"Okay."

_Wait a minute._ James' forebrain said, _But that means, the bed—there's only one bed, and before Cin was Just a close friend I can't_

His hind brain broke into the conversation.

_Yesyesyesyes-_Forebrain responded _SHUT UP! THIS IS CINDY!_

_She didn't mind-_

_A Kiss, It was a kiss—get your head out of the gutter, you dirty-_

_Oh, like you're not down there yourself. Hey maybe you should head back to that store and buy some linge-_

_-you little-_

_Oh what? It wasn't like she was some blushing bride…did you feel that Kiss? Oh, I'm sorry, you're too busy wishing we were back in the 1900s so we could drool at the sight of ank-_

_SHUT UP! _James' main brain told the hind and forebrain. Clint Eastwood, autographs, getting stuck in the past and now Cindy-

_Fine. We are going to go to bed. We are not going to do anything, we will sleep._ Both brains fell silent.

_Okay._ The Hind brain said, _Of course, what do we do if Cindy comes out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a smile and wants to snuggle. _

"Gak."

"James?" Cindy said looking up at him. "What's wrong?"

"No-nothing!" James got out.

"Good." She paused, "Gah, I've been walking all day, I'm going to be happy to get out of these shoes."

"Gak!"

_Maybe We need a distraction. _James thought._ I mean, what if Cindy is just doing this because she's lonely, not because she really wants to._

_What part, the kiss or walking out in nothing but a smile?_

_WILL YOU SHUT UP, SHE DIDN'T DO THAT._

_Not yet…._

_Prefrontal lobotomy._ James thought, That'll shut you both up.

But when they got to the apartment, Ms. Moscoso was standing out front, talking to two…

Oh Boy.

Two NYPD officers.

"They are good kids! They helped that girl from that crazy man, so what are you doing here—see, here they come!"

_Thanks for the defense, Ms. Moscoso, but you didn't have to point us out…._

"Well thank you, Ms. Moscoso…" One said, and walking up to Cindy and James looked at them. He was short, and not overly physically impressive, but he was still a cop.

"Hi. I'm officer Levitt, and I was wondering if you could come down to the precinct and answer just a few questions…"

_We could get away, they have no idea we're not just a pair of kids…_ But James was his mother's son. Beyond anything else, these were police, doing their duty. He looked down to see Cindy look up at him, suddenly holding on to him, as he was her.

_This was not the distraction I had in mind._ He thought, and then, _And I wasn't even certain if I wanted one! God, next time give me a multiple choice menu!_

"Certainly officer." James said, "Can we put our things in the apartment?"

"You can bring them with you—we have room." The officer said, and James noted that they weren't as relaxed as they looked at first glance.

_Of course. You took down someone on Angel Dust and remember how strong he was. And they know you did that._

"Are we under arrest?" Cindy asked.

"No, not at all…we just want to talk to you and maybe talk to your parents."

"Oh." James said, _Boy don't we all wish we could talk to our parents._

As the squad car left, the two teens in the back, Moscoso muttered some inspired Spanish profanity at the police and went back in her home. She didn't notice the two figures across the street.

"Well, that worked—just like our information said it would…" The one nodded to the other, "Let's get into the apartment and get this search done. We need to make certain the site is clean."

"Right."

TBC.


	12. Hey Mr Policeman!

Interview

* * *

The drive to the ninth precinct was…quiet. Levitt and the other officer had relieved Cindy and James of their wallets, gear (fortunately they showed no signs of interest in it) and their bags.

James figured that King Charles I was probably equally quiet on his way to getting the chop.

Cindy wasn't talking either.

Then… "Well, we had a good day." She said.

"Yeah."

"So…"

"Yeah?"

"What's going to happen?"

"I have no idea." James confessed.

When they got to the precinct, the officers took them up the stairs into a room with a single cell, interior office and a number of chairs and desk. The shorter officer walked directly to a mustached man who examining a file folder handed to him by another detective, James assumed.

"So, you see Captain, that's why she had the cow in her apartment."

"Well, that clears that up, Dietrich… let animal control know it's not our problem and they should ah…make certain to…"

"Bring enough bags for all the fertilizer a cow produces when it's been staying in a room for three weeks."

"Exactly." He said.

"Captain Miller?"

"Yes, Officer Levitt?"

"I managed to track down two individuals of interest in the 4th street gang case, as well as that junkie down in the Village." The officer paused, "and may I state, if I might be so bold that it required a good deal of investigative work, such as a detective might need in his day to day duties, although I'm not able to comment on that from my current position."

"I understand Levitt." The captain looked the two teens and nodded. "I'm Captain Miller, and You are?"

"James Paulson." James said. They might be years away from their parents birth, but their families still existed and he didn't trust the Demon Murphy not to arrange something unfortunate if he gave his real name.

"And your name, young lady."

"Ah, Cindy Lindon sir." Cindy said.

"Of course." The captain looked at them, "Dietrich?"

"Barney?"

"Why don't you take down the information about our two wandering heroes while I get the files from the gang case sent up here." He paused, "And while you're at it, see if you can convince them to give you their real last names." He paused, "James, Cindy, why don't you go sit down with Detective Dietrich and get to know him."

Dietrich gestured at two chairs in front of his desk and the two teens sat like they suddenly had been pulled into it.

_It was a reasonable fake last name…_ James thought.

Then again he'd never been able to put anything over on his parents.

"So, I'm detective Arthur Dietrich" he said, "Do you mind if I look through your wallets?" James shook his head. At least they'd stashed the very incriminating MHS identification cards and other material in the wallet. He opened Cindy's riffled through it, and then opened James and did the same. He did pull out a single 100 dollar bill from James' time. James hoped that he'd just drop it as a fake, but Dietrich looked at it with interest, putting it to the side before returning to the 1976 bills. "This is a fairly large amount of money for two teens to have… especially teens without identification" He said, "and on that, how old are you?"

"17" James said.

"Me as well." Cindy added.

Dietrich looked at them through his glasses, and nodded, "Age…" He said, running a sheet of paper through the typewriter, "Unknown."

_Now this is getting annoying._ James thought. Looking through their other goods, the detective held up a pair of glasses.

"Yours?"

"Mine." Cindy said, glaring. She'd managed to avoid wearing the hideous things except when they were in the library, but now they were being exhibited for everyone in the room, including two detectives who just came in.

"And where did you get the money."

"A paper route?" James said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Let's see… one, two…three, four…five…." Dietrich finished, "7,000 dollars between the two of you in mostly 100 dollar bills. That's a very well paying paper route."

James suddenly realized why mom sometimes groused about preferring to deal with the old crazy villains. They wouldn't have even thought to doubt him. "It was a very well paying paper route?" He said hopefully.

"Hang on here." He waved over at the other detective. "Wojo?"

"What is it?"

"Would you mind calling downtown about that gang fight and ask them to see if those kids 'borrowed' any money? They may have to call Mr. Director if he didn't put it in the report."

"Sure thing."

Dietrich turned back to them. "The officers didn't get a lot of information from the victims, but the gang members did claim that two kids were involved… are you certain you didn't have anything to do with that?"

"Um, well, I mean, that'd be crazy." Cindy said, and indicated her dress, "Us, fight a gang? I mean that's…." The door opened to the office an Asian-American detective came walking in, a man in front of him in hand cuffs.

"You seemed to do well enough against the junkie in the Village." Dietrich pointed out.

"That was luck." James said…and then Cindy recognized the man in cuffs.

Oh no. Cindy thought.

Oh, _no._ She realized that yes, there was a God and he had a very seriously warped sense of humor. It was that creep from the alley.

_Maybe he won't recognize me, Maybe he won't recognize me-_

"Hey Barney." The detective said to Captain Miller, "We picked him up right outside of the bus stop for solicitin-"

"You!" The creep said angrily, and tried to point at Cindy and James. _"I want these two arrested for assault!"_ The entire room fell silent.

"Well." Dietrich said, "How did you meet him?"

"Ummmm….That's a good question." James said helplessly.

* * *

Inside the apartment the two figures had quickly and effectively searched the rooms, revealing the hidden money that James and Cindy had stashed.

"What should we do with this?"

"We'll mail it to the landlord."

"Gotcha." The shorter figure looked into the bedroom and then paused.

"This isn't good."

"What isn't-wait a minute does this mean what I think-"

"Not good at all."

TBC.


	13. Office Interview: Part I

Office Interview: Part I

* * *

"We met him in an alley and he…" Suddenly Cindy blushed and fell silent.

"I tried to help her, and she assaulted, me, _assaulted me!_" "Tiny" said, "I attempt to provide a service, a _Christian_ service, for the lost and down trodden..."

"Service? _Service?_" James said rising up and glaring, "You were telling her that she could be a star if she-" Then _he_ broke off and blushed.

"Right." Captain Miller said, and looked over at another detective. "Harris, how about if you interview our blushing beauty about her possible film career while Dietrich deals with Mr…. Probable."

"Right Barney." The African American man gestured over at Cindy. "Here, now, sit."

"Fine…" Cindy grumped and reluctantly walked over to Harris' desk.

Meanwhile, Dietrich continued to ask James questions.

"So, your home address?"

"Um, er… Poughkeepsie?"

Dietrich paused and looked over at James. "You know, Joeseph F. Newton said: "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."" He paused.

"Um…" _Okay, he's saying… not cooperating is building a wall?_ "Well I-"

"Dietrich," The other detective said, hanging up the phone. "The DA doesn't want to put Director on the phone, he's giving them a lot of dirt about some kind of income tax fraud…but they did ask him and he said he gave the kids the money, it was his money and as far as he's concerned they can keep it."

"Thanks, Wojo." Dietrich said.

"So you _did_ save him." Dietrich said to James.

"Well I-"

"You might get a reward for it." The other detective, Wojo said, "I mean, so many people just wander on by, and don't help, don't even try—you should be on the news, so people can see-"

_Bad idea, BAD IDEA!_

"Um… our parents don't like publicity hounds." James said desperately.

"The parents who live in Poughkeepsie?" Dietrich said, "Got an address so we can confirm that with them?"

_So, now I have something else in common with Cindy's dad…plans that collapse into complete ruin in 20 seconds._

Over at the other Desk, Harris was going through some of the papers in Cindy's things. Looking at one, he frowned.

"What's this? Some fantasy story?"

"Um, er…" Cindy switched her glare from Tiny to the paper and gulped. It was James' list of games that were going to be won and lost in the next ten years. Harris frowned and looked at it and then laughed.

"Oh, it's gotta be a fantasy story—some of these teams, I mean, no way!" He said, "I gotta show Barney this. Sit here."

"Yessir." Cindy said, as Harris got up followed by Dietrich. Wojo was working on some paperwork, leaving them with the Asian detective, Nick Yemana, who was interviewing Tiny.

"So…" Tiny continued, "I see myself as a social worker, someone who helps people." He paused, "Like that poor girl, she has no idea what to do with her assets, and so I tried to hire myself out as a consulting agent."

"Assets?" Cindy asked. _"ASSETS?_"

"Yeah, and pretty big ones too!"

* * *

Inside Miller's office, Harris and Dietrich were talking to the captain.

"Barney, you gotta see this list—I don't know where they live, but these kids have a great sense of humor—I mean, dates up for the next decade, and you should see who they have winning in 1986!" Harris was chortling while he read the list.

"Well, I'm happy they have a hobby—but any luck on the parents." Barney said,

"No Captain," Dietrich answered and Harris stopped laughing and nodded.

"They're lying through their teeth about where they live." Harris said, "We probably should have separated them before they got their stories straight.

"And they're not 17, I can tell you that, Captain." Dietrich said, "Mature for their age, but it isn't 17." He paused, "But I don't think they committed any crimes."

"No." Barney said, "I just got off of the phone with Bellevue, and that junkie was fine—the kid took him down better than any orderly they had. They want me to ask him if he wants a job."

"Ditto for the money." Dietrich said, "It was given to them as a reward for helping that guy and his kid." He shrugged, "Legally, it's theirs."

"Maybe, but they've already been in three fights, not to mention getting at least one gang angry at them." Barney said, "We need to find their parents, or get social services involved, or they're going to run into something they can't handle."

"I'll let them know," Dietrich said, "Maybe they think they might go to jail, and we'll calm them down if they know they're safe from that."

* * *

Outside.

"Yeah, I mean, a girl like you, c'mon, you have to have had guys crawling all over you…I can offer a package of services far better than your boyfriend can. I mean," He said, leering, "he's not a real _man,_ is he?"

Yemana spoke up, "Okay, that's enough." He hadn't spoken because well, hey, if a man wanted to provide evidence of soliciting minors, who was he to stop it, but now…

Suddenly things got a bit odd. The girl stood up…and then _heat waves_ seemed to be coming from her.

"Oh, hey…" Tiny said, "don't you do any of that fire-"

"Fire?" Nick asked, and then looked over at Cindy…and there _were_ little flickers of flame coming from her.

He blinked. This was not something you normally saw. Not even in New York.

"Barney." He said, the captain would know what to do.

"Real man? Real _man!"_ Cindy snarled, "James is more of a man than you'll ever be, and he'd never scream like a little girl when someone suspended him from a street light, like you did, and if you ever-" The fire was getting more apparent.

"_Barney…._"

"Cindy, calm down," James said, "It's not that big of a-"

"I _Am_ NOT going to calm down, did you hear what he-"

"I don't have any more clothes, don't you dare burn these-"

"_Barney!!!!"_

Now Tiny gave a little scream, (a bit high pitched actually) and leaped onto one of the file cabinets while Cindy was standing up, glaring at him, her eyes now _glowing_. James was trying to placate her, as Wojo turned and blinked, looking at the group.

Then…

"_WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!"_ That came from Captain Miller. A very unhappy Captain Miller.

TBC.


	14. Office Interview: SOS

SOS:

_Congratulations to Pesterfield for thinking of the same thing Dietrich did!_

* * *

God was kind in one respect. Detective Yemana was between Cindy and Captain Miller, so he didn't see her fire, which immediately snuffed out. Wojo was blinking like he didn't believe what he had just seen and Tiny was still on top of the Filing cabinet.

"_Young lady, Sit Down Right Now!"_ Miller barked.

"Yessir!" Cindy sat.

"You! Get down here right now!" He said to Tiny.

"Keep her away from me!"

"Fine—Nick, put him in the cage." Miller looked at Tiny, "Will that protect you from the evil woman?"

"Um…I…I didn't want to have to hurt her!" Tiny said, realizing that his street cred had probably taken a fatal hit.

"Fine. We'll protect her from you." Miller said.

As Nick put him in the cage, he looked over at Wojo. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah… I heard about hot heads but…"

"Should we tell the Captain?"

Wojo thought about it. "Not unless she catches fire again….at least it wasn't the weirdest thing that happened here."

"Warewolf or the atom bomb?"

"Atom Bomb, I think."

Meanwhile, Cindy and James were facing a somewhat calmer Captain Miller.

_He's acting like this isn't that unusual. _James thought, _Maybe it isn't. _

"Okay now here's the thing." Barney said, "You can't just wander around alone. I hate to say it, but nobody here believes you're 17." He continued, "and the good deeds you've done have probably annoyed a number of people, including a few gang members."

"Are we going to be arrested?" Cindy asked.

"No." Dietrich said, "You haven't broken any criminal law, but we are going to have to call social services. If you continue to refuse to identify your parents, and if we can't find them-"

_Good Luck, _both teens thought,

"-You'll be placed with foster care families."

Cindy and James tensed at that, and somehow they found themselves holding hands.

"W-" James gulped, "Will we be able to…see each other?"

"Probably—you'll almost certainly be placed in the City. " Miller said, "And it's a foster home, not a prison. You'll go to school-"

_Well, that won't be a problem._

"-and be able to see each other—we'll put your money in a trust fund and that should see you two through college at least."

"oh."

"Now, if you want to be a little more clear about where your parents are…" Miller nodded at Dietrich and Harris, "you know who to talk to." He paused, "I have to go finish up some paperwork on transferring our good Samaritan- it seems that the DA wants to speak to him regarding his…activities." He nodded to them and headed back into the office.

"Well?" Dietrich asked.

"Can I speak to you in…utter confidence?" James asked.

"Sure." Dietrich said, "As long as it isn't about breaking the law or helping you break it."

"James…what are you-"

"We're from the future." James gushed out.

"_James!"_

"I don't know what else to do!" He hissed back. "See, we can't risk getting known because that might X us out of the picture and so it'd be a really bad idea to put us in this city because Grandma is about to start college in two years."

"You'd be legal adults by then." Dietrich pointed out. He paused, "And of course if time is static and set, the only reason you could have traveled back to this time is because you were supposed to, so you couldn't harm your own future."

"But I don't know if that's the case!" James said, "What if I can and I cause a paradox-wait a minute." He stopped. "You're taking this…really well."

"You're not the first time traveler we've had." Dietrich said.

"_Claimed_ time traveler." Harris said, "C'mon kids, we weren't born yesterday—I know you wrote down those football games, but it takes more than that to convince us."

"Oh?"

"It _is_ a major claim." Dietrich added.

"And a crazy one." Cindy hissed, "James what are you doing? I thought that we weren't supposed to get involved-"

"We already are—if we go into the social services our names will be all over the place."

"And telling a cop won't?"

"_Not if he loses the paper work!"_

"That's sort of illegal." Harris pointed out. "I have to give you credit though, it's an original story."

"Look, we have, um, proof." James said.

"More football games?"

"A girl who lights herself on fire?" Nick said from his desk.

"What?" Harris said.

James blanched, that would be…very revealing as to Cindy's origin if the story ever got out, especially in just under 20 years when a certain comet hit the earth.

"Um, no, better!" He said, "Can I see…" He looked over at his goods, "the Communicator?"

"What?"

"That flat thing." James paused, and lowered his voice, "This is very classified."

"Of course." Dietrich said. Harris snorted, and then both detectives stopped as James turned it on and the screen saver appeared, (James kept his thumb over the date).

"So you have a TV." Harris said.

"With a very detailed screen." Dietrich said, "No CRT?"

"Um, no, but I really _really_ can't tell you."

"Because you'll damage the time stream."

"Or let us know who you stole it from." Harris sighed, "Kids, you know we'll have to send this up to see if there's been a report."

"There won't be!" James said, "It doesn't exist and you can't-" He hit a stud and the screen flicked off.

"Oh Good James." Cindy said, "Sure, we can't show them _Cindy's_ fire, but you have no problem with something incorporating technology that doesn't even exist yet."

"If they tried to open it, it'd destruct, you know _that!_"

"Who cares—bad enough that they know that it exists—if you know something _can _be done-"

"I _know_ Cin…so do you have any suggestions?" James said in a huff.

"Give me a minute!" Cindy huffed back and suddenly they were no longer holding hands.

_Oh Hey, is this our first quarrel?_ James wondered. He looked over at Cindy's glare and nodded. _Yup._

"So you expect us to believe that you come from the future—where's your time machine?"

"We ah, don't have one. It was an accident and your tech is way to stone age to build one." Cindy said.

"Oh really." Harris commented.

"Some people still have _Black and white_ TVs." Cindy said. Her expression showed that she expected the next level down to be ritual sacrifice with obsidian daggers.

"So why not call for help?" Dietrich said.

"Building a machine would be as hard no matter what we sent up."

"What about a letter?"

James and Cindy blinked.

"What?" They both said.

"Write a letter to someone in the future and have it mailed to them after you were sent back in time." He shrugged, "There are time capsule services that will do that."

"But it would still take years-" James said, "How would it help us?"

"Once they receive the letters, tell them when to come back and get you after you've sent them—that way there won't be a paradox."

…. James and Cindy looked at Dietrich.

…. They didn't say anything.

…. Then James put his head down on the desk and began to bang it against the cool wood. He felt better.

Cindy paused, and started to involuntarily giggle. "You-no technology, power sources didn't exist-I couldn't no cold sleep-" Then she started to giggle louder.

"Oh great, you broke their brains." Harris said.

"Well, sometimes the simple things elude you." Dietrich commented. "Do you want to type up a pair of letters and let me mail them?" He paused, "I know a service that will hold them."

"What are you doing?" Harris asked, then paused, grinned and lowered his voice. "Oh, I see, you see where they send those letters and that's probably close to where they live—good job."

"We'll do that sir." James said, recovering. The two quickly typed out letters, folded them into envelopes and addressed them. "When should we have them delivered?"

"That evening—it's after we got zapped, but before our families will get worried."

"Right." James said and handed them to Dietrich. "Do you want money for-"

"No, I'll pay for it." Dietrich said and headed to the door.

"Are you going to actually send them?" Harris asked.

"Sure. I promised to."

Harris laughed, "You do know how to run with a gag." He paused, "Hey while you do that, I'll send their files over to Social Services and the Fed's to see if they have a missing persons report."

"You do that."

"So, ah…what do we do?" Cindy asked James.

"Sit here and wait?"

"I _hate_ waiting." Cindy muttered. "Sir?" She asked Wojo who was finishing up his work. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Sure, can you alphabetize these files?"

* * *

_The Present_: (or Future. Time travel is confusing that way).

Shego finished the Tuna Casserole. Drew was home more, but after she'd caught him accidentally mixing the nanotech infusion for the Chedder, she had decided to take over cooking. It also helped distract her from the fact that Cindy and James weren't back yet. She worried, but as much as she had tried, she'd finally had to realize you couldn't wrap your daughter up and store her away from all harm.

There was a knock on the door. Frowning, Shego went to go get it. _It's a bit late…_

"Sign for this, Ma'am." The man said, and Shego nodded, signed for it and looked at the package.

"Time Capsule Incorporated…." She said, puzzled. It was old, whatever it was—looked considerably older than her, actually. The stamp said 1976…who would know…her _name_ was on the front. She quickly opened it.

Cindy it must be said, had many traits of her mother, including her mother's sense of humor. That did not always work to everyone's advantage. There were pages there saying when and where she was, and where she had been so that any rescuer could avoid a paradox…. But She had also scrawled a quick note on the front to get her mothers attention.

It did.

"Hi Mom! James and I are in the past and I'm in _JAIL!_"

"_DREEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!"_

TBC


	15. Rescued?

Rescued?

* * *

Cindy had finished the alphabetizing of the files while James tinkered with one of the busted typewriters. Barney looked at the two of them and then turned to Dietrich, and Harris.

"So, they're really sticking with the story."

"Seems that way, Barney." Harris said, "Say, Barney…could this be a candid camera sort of thing?"

"What, someone comes charging in to say it was all a prank?" Barney shook his head, "I don't think so."

"Well, we'll know pretty soon." Dietrich said.

"What?"

"If they were telling the truth. About the time travel." Barney and Harris looked at Dietrich. He continued to speak.

"Well, even though from our point of view it will take nearly 50 years for the letters to get to their parents, all they have to do is come back a few hours after the letters were sent."

"Riiiigggghhhhttt." Harris said, "and when they don't show up?"

"Well, that would prove that they aren't time travelers."

"Would you like to place a bet-" the door opened.

"CINDY G. LINDON!" The voice roared out from a dark haired woman in a dress and floppy hat. Behind her a red head, stood, equally annoyed.

"Mom?" Cindy said, _at least she did not say…The Name._

"don't Mom me, you—here we find out that we thought you were at summer camp and you and your friend are using it to run all over New York!"

"Wha-?" James started and the other woman started in on him.

"Oh, enough with the act, James, we found the train tickets—and your trainer will be very upset when he hears about your little escapades!"

"Still want to place the bet?" Dietrich asked Harris. Harris blinked.

"Nah, there has to be another explanation." He said.

Barney walked over to the two women and gestured, "Welcome to the 12th Precinct—I'm Captain Miller, and You are…"

"I'm Shego Lindon, and this is Kim Probable."

"hm, the names were real." Harris said, "We're slipping."

"Well, Mrs. Lindon, Mrs. Probable…we've had a bit of a challenge finding out who your children belonged to." Barney said, "I take it they're not from the future?"

"Oh, they'll be _in_ the future when we get done with them." Kim said. "I'm very sorry they've wasted your time."

_Nice act,_ James thought, _They really seem annoyed. _

"Not at all—in fact they've done some good deeds, but we were concerned for their safety." Barney gestured to Dietrich and Harris, "If you'll just give some information to Detectives Dietrich and Harris, we can actually give your wayward lambs back to you." As he said that he dropped a slip of paper into the trash. Slipping in behind Shego and Kim, one of the janitors promptly took the trash and dumped it into his cart before leaving the room.

"That's good."

"First of all, Ma'am," Harris said, "the children had a large sum of money on them. It was given to them legally…but you should probably keep it for them."

"I don't know, Detective." Shego said, "I mean, how did they obtain it?"

"They intervened in an attempted mugging." Dietrich said, keeping things simple.

The woman's eyes went wide, "Fighting? _My Daughter?_" She took a horrified breath, "After all I've taught her about how to be a law abiding citizen? After the life I've led to try and keep her from the paths of criminality?"

Cindy's foot started tapping on the ground. This was getting a bit ridiculous and both Detectives were looking…dubious. Kim looked like she was about to start sneezing or laughing.

"Well, they seem rather accomplished at it."

"And catching on fire." Nick said from his desk.

"Ah." Shego said, unbalanced by that. She paused, "But anyway, I just don't feel confident at taking such a large sum, no matter how it was gained—after all, the children shouldn't profit from this."

_What? NO! MY BIOREACTORS!_ Cindy thought.

"Maybe…" Kim said, "Is there any charity that we could donate it to?"

"Well, the police department does have a fund for crime victims." Dietrich said.

"That sounds _wonderful._" Shego gushed.

_NO IT DOESN'T! _Two teenaged minds replied.

"Well, if you can just review this paperwork, and sign out for their packages…" Dietrich paused, "Cindy was propositioned by…" He gestured over at the cage, "that gentleman. Do you want to press charges?"

"Oh, of course not," Shego said, "I'm certain it was a big misunderstanding…let me talk to him, please?"

"Certainly." Harris said and led her over.

Meanwhile, Kim was signing off for the material. "Honestly James, how many science fiction books did you get?"

"Well, these and some others, and westerns, don't forget the westerns."

"How could I." His mother said, still frowning at him.

_What is it? Did we screw up time somehow?_

"Oh…" Harris said, "Social services is coming by—would you mind waiting for them?"

Shego didn't miss a beat. "Of course not, sir!" Then she leaned down to Tiny and looking back, pulled her hat down so nobody could see her face save Tiny.

"Tiny…"

"Yeah-wait a minute, how do you know-"

"Oh…. I know a _lot_ of things about you." Shego said, holding up a finger…which then was haloed in green fire. "Like just what a _bad_ end you might come to if you keep on this route…" Shego smiled and abruptly her mouth was glowing as were her eyes, "I mean, little Cindy is so sweet and gentle that she'd never raise her voice to you…"

"_Her?"_

"I know, it's sad how timid some people can be…" Shego continued, "But I make up for it…" Then she smiled and sunnily continued, "Well I'm _happy_ we had this little talk—buh-bye!"

"un-huh…" Tiny said and then slumped over in a dead faint.

"Sir," Kim said, to Dietrich, "Could we speak to our children in the corridor for a moment…" she smiled, "I don't think they want anyone to hear what we're going to say…" The detective nodded, as Kim and Shego gathered the gear together and ushered their children out. At the door, Kim paused and turned, "And this sounds odd…but could I get your autograph."

"Certainly," Dietrich said with aplomb and signed a piece of paper.

"You are so lucky." Harris said to him.

"Oh?"

"I was this close to taking the bet."

"What makes you think you would have won?"

"How did they know where their children were?"

"It's obvious—they checked the files down town—we sent the paperwork in, remember?"

"This quickly?"

"Well…"

The door opened and Levitt came in. "Captain Miller?"

"Yes Levitt?"

"About those kids-"

"It's all been solved Levitt." Barney said, "Just a pair of kids deciding to hit the city instead of summer camp."

"Oh, so Social Services won't need to send anyone over?"

"Weren't they?"

"They were, but the paperwork we sent over got lost—so they didn't have any information. If we want to send it again…"

"No…that's not needed—just tell them that they can go." Barney said.

"Them?"

"They were out in the corridor."

"Sir, nobody was out there when I came up."

"What?" Harris said, "That's impossible—there's no way down other than the stairs and they were carrying a lot of stuff." He paused, "you didn't see two beautiful women, two kids and a lot of bags?"

"No sir."

"Care to take the bet?" Dietrich said.

"I…" Harris paused, "_nah…._" He looked around, "Can't be."

"Why not?"

"Well, it's…"

"We have one possible proof."

"Oh?"

"The list of games…if he's right…"

Harris blinked and walked into Barney's office. A moment later, he came out. "Hey Barney, where are those games the kid wrote down."

"Those? I threw them away." Barney shrugged, "Case closed."

"Pity." Dietrich said, "If they were right, it'd be proof…and a fair amount of money."

Harris paused, looked down, looked up, tried to look nonchalant, as he looked over at Barney, "Captain…I need to take a quick break."

"Sure." Barney said, already preoccupied with a report of a flying saucer landing in central park.

Harris moved slowly to the door, but then he heard a heavy engine firing up down stairs and he started to run, shouting "HOLD THAT TRASH TRUCK! THERE'S EVIDENCE IN IT!" his shouts fading along with his footsteps.

Dietrich shook his head and laughed, "Should have taken the bet," he said as he started to type up a new report.

Tiny groaned and came to. "Guys?"

"Yeah?" Nick said

"On the way downtown can we stop at the church, I got about 10 years worth of confessions to get started on…."

* * *

James and Cindy were in a strange, glowing place.

"What happened?"

"We needed help to get you and we got it, but we're not supposed to say more." Kim said, "Except have a cookie." She continued handing them a cookie from a basket sitting in front of them, "Evidently, traveling through time builds up an appetite." She paused, "Oh, here you are." She continued, holding out Dietrich's autograph.

A deep voice said: "Thank you," And from a glowing portal, a pink arm with claws reached out to take the paper.

_That looks like…nah._ James thought.

"Now, for you two." Shego said, and Kim was looking at them.

"What is it?" James asked, "Did we mess up the timeline?"

"That? Of course not, once we got the records, we knew where to go—we dropped in about an hour ago to clean up your apartment after the cops took you into custody."

"And that money?" Cindy asked hopefully.

"We gave it to your land lord."

"Then what's the problem?" James asked, puzzled, _if we didn't mess up the time line…_

"Well…" Kim said, "It's like this…." She remembered earlier that day…

_The two easily entered the apartment. "They said they didn't leave any tech here, but let's make certain. _

_Kim paused and looked into the bedroom again. Shego perked up at her: "This isn't good." _

_Shego walked into the room and looked around. "What isn't-wait a minute does this mean what I think-" She was looking at the bed. Unmade in James' and Cindy's hurry to get out that morning, the bed had the unmistakable imprint of _two_ human bodies… Not only that but over by the dresser, a dress and a pair of James' clothes were on top of each other. Kim marched to the closet and opened it, nothing that the clothes were mixed. Dresses and slacks and jeans close together. _

"_Not good at all." Kim said._

"So dear…" Shego said, cutting off Kim's reverie, "we found the most interesting things in your apartment."

"But we didn't leave any tech behind." James said.

"Oh, that's not what we're talking about." Kim said.

"See, Your mother and I just have one question." Shego continued in a sweet voice that might have fooled Tiny but had James looking for an exit.

"What?" Cindy asked.

"How long have you been sleeping together in the same bed?"

Two teenaged minds had the same thought:

_Oh, Snap._

"um…" James said.

"Ah…" Cindy said.

"Oh, don't worry—we have 50 years of time travel before you have to come up with an answer." Shego said and then the mist faded revealing a ruined lab, some GJ operatives and two familiar male figures. "See, we're already here!" She smiled, "Drew, Ron…our children have the most _interesting_ story to tell us."

"I wonder if we can convince Temporal to send us back again." James muttered.

"I don't' think there's any place he _can_ send us that's gonna save us." Cindy said, gulping as her mother, with a broad, _Broad_ smile invited her to walk further into the ruined lair of the good doctor.

"I can hardly _wait_ to hear the story." Shego continued.

The End.

* * *

To be continued in: Family Chats.


End file.
